House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., posted a video Tuesday to announce her re-election bid. She’s going to win the race for her San Francisco seat for the 18th time; that’s not in doubt. The question that every House Democrat is asking, though, is “what comes next?” I don’t know what Pelosi intends — but when she returns to Washington next January, it can’t be with an eye on retaining the speaker’s gavel.
This isn’t a dig at her leadership style. Since she became the leader of the House Democrats in 2002, Pelosi has been a master strategist and negotiator. She’s managed to keep her caucus together through the Obama and Trump administrations, shepherding landmark legislation into law along the way. Even after she lost the speakership in 2011, she remained the minority leader until she reclaimed the gavel in 2019.
That’s remarkable stability, especially when you compare her tenure to the fractious chaos on the other side of the aisle. The Republican caucus has burned through its leaders by comparison, with four men holding the position of speaker or minority leader since Pelosi took the reins. Even as she’s had to bring the more moderate and progressive wings of her party together, she’s done so with aplomb. There’s been no serious challenge to her reign, as she’s kept her rivals close at hand.
That tendency has ironically become part of the reason her time atop the caucus needs to end. Pelosi, 81, has been in Congress since the year I was born — and she isn’t an outlier on the age front among her top leadership team, which has remained with her since 2007. Steny Hoyer of Maryland — the majority leader and Pelosi’s longtime frenemy — is 82. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina is the majority whip, the No. 3 spot in the House, and 81 years old, as well.
Neither has indicated whether they will also want to retain their positions should Pelosi step down as speaker. But Hoyer bristled at the pledge Pelosi made in 2018 to step down as leader after four years, reportedly snapping: “She’s not negotiating for me.” Clyburn, who is also running again, dismissed the idea that he needed to step aside for younger Democrats. “I never asked anybody to die for me,” he said in an interview for “Axios on HBO.” “I don’t know why people come saying you need to step aside for me. No. If you want my seat, come get it.”
Either could make his own play for the top gig if Pelosi doesn’t. Clyburn was noncommittal in 2020 when asked whether he’d be interested in the speaker’s role. But it seems doubtful that the caucus will select another octogenarian to replace Pelosi.








